# BJJ By [mountainwaterpi](https://paragraph.com/@picholas) · 2022-02-11 --- Last summer, Tobi A. changed my life by telling me about a martial art that he had been learning called Brazilian jiu jitsu (“BJJ”). I had 0 experience with martial arts and, transparently, I was disinterested in such a seemingly violent pursuit. I’ve always considered myself an athlete and had been playing a ton of soccer and tennis but fighting as a sport never occurred to me as something that I’d like or that would be sustainable long-term for my health. However, Tobi described jiu jitsu as more of a strategy game that had the side effect of physical benefits. He explained that it was like “moving chess” and I could tell he was \*hooked\*.  I love strategy games so I inevitably had to try it out. My first few months I started attending classes 2-3 times a week after work. The physical workouts were intense; usually I’d be dripping sweat by the end of the class. Moreover, there was a seemingly massive library of techniques to learn, and so I was experiencing the joys of relatively rapid growth from having no foundation. Every week I was getting stronger and more flexible without having to touch a weight, and it definitely felt good to know that I could somewhat defend myself in a bad street altercation, at least enough until I could run away. Lastly, some of the submissions I learned about were mind blowing applications of strong muscles against weak joints that I knew I had to master. Check out the triangle choke, for example, in which you use your thigh and _your partner’s own arm/shoulder_ to choke them until they tap or fall asleep for a little bit: [![]({{DOMAIN}}/editor/youtube/play.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waM29uvV1Wo) As I trained more, I began to plateau as my library of techniques continued to grow. No longer was I motivated to learn new submissions. Instead, I was realizing how important it was to learn about the body angles and subtle movements I needed to get better at in order to gain a positional advantage over my partner. There’s a saying in BJJ “position before submission”, alluding to the idea that you need to get to the right position before you can attempt a submission. While I might look like a potato performing the techniques, jiu jitsu done well looks artistic. Art is the combination of mastered technique and spontaneous creativity, and the masters of BJJ are able to craft their own style. [![]({{DOMAIN}}/editor/youtube/play.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nweut2tSWNs) For people like me interested in reason and systems, jiu jitsu is a perfect art. Every technique is a straightforward application of physics; every movement has a purpose, to change an angle, gain leverage, and increase your positional advantage. Attack and defense systems are combinations of such techniques that when stringed together look like a dance. And every practitioner can eventually express their personality through their own style. One person’s game can be beautiful in the same way that a soccer team’s system can be beautiful, as long as they move with intention and creativity. Getting competent enough at this art to the point where I can begin to express my own style is all the motivation I need to endure the daily beatdowns. You shouldn’t fear injury also, as you can’t get too hurt in BJJ unless you let your ego get the best of you and you try to wrench your way out of a bad situation. Teachers stress that you need to “tap early and often”, which is basically like shouting “Uncle!”. This shouldn’t be a problem if you have the right attitude towards training. ![source: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e95ab084493190d17e940fcd1534b4d2dc36b176de0330aa556298a885b3d852.jpg) source: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj This leads me to my last point about community. Beyond the fitness and techniques gained, the best part about training were the people I was meeting. A sport that requires you to cast aside your ego and admit multiple times a day that another human has physically bested you inherently attracts a very humble and open-minded set of people. It’s also easy to form deep bonds with people that you sweatily roll around on mats with every day. Everyone comes to training to better their art, improve their discipline and have a good time. In NYC I’ve had the pleasure of learning from awesome and passionate people like Josh, Kyle, Anthony and Ray at [Clockwork](https://www.clockworkbjj.com/). I’ve become friends with the regular faces that I see at Clockwork. The hidden beauty of BJJ is the global network that you get to join. For example, the week before I was set to fly to LA for a month, I happened to roll with Triue who was coincidentally visiting from LA. I was going to stay in Venice in LA and was planning to train at a gym close to my airbnb, but he highly recommended me his gym, [Autore](https://autorebjj.com/). Autore was a much further drive from where I was staying so I was a bit hesitant, but I understood how important the vibe of a gym is to training, so I had to check it out. This was absolutely the right call, thanks Triue. Over the past month, I am so grateful that I got to learn under the young professors Gus and Lex. They have cultivated an amazing gym culture where everyone treats each other as family and they are hungry to better themselves. I’m genuinely sad to have to leave the morning crew until I visit again in the future. I’ve been driving before sunrise most days to roll with the morning crew: Kai, Agatha, G, Mike, Wilmer and more. Some of them are already planning to train at Clockwork in NYC when they visit NYC. If you’re ever in LA looking to train, then you need to check out this up and coming gym. Looking forward to our next roll, OSS!! ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ae3f0af475e91a104eccc1618c82b256317502d65964a165509d4693459fe48a.jpg) --- *Originally published on [mountainwaterpi](https://paragraph.com/@picholas/bjj)*